JadeVib

Jim Davis of Wailuku is shown with a World War II vintage Army firetruck he helped restore in 2009 for a Dutch citizen. He was invited to drive it during the rollout of the restoration of the vehicle. His name and unit were painted on the truck. ROBERT VAN’T OOST photo

Jim Davis knows firetrucks, especially World War II-era ones.

The 94-year-old Wailuku resident is one of the foremost experts on World War II Army firetrucks, having operated them during the war and literally written the book on them. He has offered his expertise worldwide on restoration projects.

Davis, who moved to Maui in 1993 with his late wife, Nan, doesn’t know what the fascination is about old firetrucks.

“I have no idea what it is,” he said in a phone interview last month. “A firetruck to me was a tool during the war.

“I do know that the fascination is extremely intense.”

Two firetrucks at the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California are shown in the camp in this undated photo. The red firetruck was built by Ward LaFrance on a Ford platform and the other one by Peter Pirsch Fire Truck Co. on a Dodge platform. Manzanar National Historic Site / TOYO MIYATAKE photo

His current project involves helping restore two WWII-era firetrucks for the Manzanar National Historic Site in California, one of the relocation camps that detained more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans during the war.

He will not be physically involved in the project because of travel-related cost and health reasons, but he has been offering his expertise and advice on parts and equipment lists over the last year or two. He learned about the restoration project during an unrelated meeting with an archivist at the Automobile Club of Southern California and called the park to offer his services.

“I am going to provide my expertise from having used those vehicles during World War II,” he said. “I will know when everything is right.”

Park Superintendent Bernadette Johnson acknowledged Davis’ assistance and his help with the inventory of the engines. Some of the background information provided by Davis “is going to be very helpful,” she said.

“We need a lot of background, and Mr. Davis has provided a lot of that,” she said last month.

“I know Mr. Davis is very passionate about the history of the engines, and we appreciate his efforts to give us background information,” Johnson said.

The park has not made any decisions about the two Class 500 firetrucks, said Johnson. One was built by Ward LaFrance on a Ford platform and the second by Peter Pirsch Fire Truck Co. on a Dodge platform.

“We don’t know what level of work we will be doing,” she said, adding that the trucks could be put on display as they are. “No decisions have been made about restoration.”

The Class 500 firetruck carried 150 gallons of water with a 500-gallon-per-minute output from a centrifugal pump, Davis said. It is a “fire-hydrant-dependent” firetruck, he said.

The 7,800-pound trucks with six tires have a nonsynchronized transmission with double-clutch system. Without power steering, Davis said, “they were not easy to steer.”

“You had to work at driving them,” he recalled.

The Ward LaFrance firetruck was put into use at the camp in spring 1942. After the war ended, the truck was sold to the Bishop Volunteer Fire Department in California. The truck, which was modified to include a ladder, was purchased by the National Park Service in the 1990s and returned to Manzanar, Davis said.

The second truck arrived in the camp in spring 1943. It went to the Lone Pine Volunteer Fire Department in California after the war and was later acquired by the Keeler Volunteer Fire Department. The Fire Department has agreed to return the truck to Manzanar and the transfer is in process, Davis said.

Davis operated these trucks while assigned to the 1204 Army Engineer Fire Fighting Platoon that fought Army and civilian fires in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany during World War II.

In 1980, Davis learned that Army historians had left the activities of these firefighting platoons out of the war record, in part because they were autonomous units not assigned to battalions.

So he wrote from memory and published the history of the 1204th. The book was titled “Fire Fighters in Fatigue, The History of World War II Army Engineer Fire Fighting Platoon.” He also established two websites — one on the firefighting platoons and another on the trucks.

Davis said he is the last survivor of his unit; the second to last one died earlier this year.

For the last 30 years, Davis, a retired California ranger, has been helping with restoration efforts — such as the one at Manzanar — for these firetrucks around the world, including the Netherlands, Russia and Japan.

Davis said he was “aware only vaguely” about the relocation camps. In his high school, “one day, they weren’t there,” he recalled about his Japanese-American classmates.

“I did not support the camps. . . . I think it was absolutely totally wrong,” Davis said. “It’s a very sad commentary on our racial attitudes.”

In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that led to the forced removal of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast, according to the Manzanar National Historic Site website. Most eventually ended up in 10 hastily built relocation camps; Manzanar was one of them.

Davis’ father, Arthur, was part of an engineer battalion as well, the 578th Brigade Engineer Battalion, a California National Guard unit, with roots in the World War I 42nd (Rainbow) Division. The younger Davis organized a tribute to his father, a first sergeant, and fellow soldiers of the division a year ago on the centennial of the formation of F Company, 2nd Battalion, 117th Regiment, 42nd (Rainbow) Division on May 29.

The elder Davis, a Silver Star winner, and fellow soldiers in the division built a memorial in 1935 that still stands today in Memorial Grove in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park, where the ceremony was held.

The division was formed when America entered World War I and was composed of National Guard units from 26 states. The California Guard’s 578th Brigade Engineer Battalion was reorganized and designated in 1917 as Company E, 117th Engineers and fought as an element of the 42nd Infantry Division.

* Lee Imada can be reached at leeimada@mauinews.com.

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

The Maui News Maui County Department of Finance Director Scott Teruya was placed on administrative leave on last ...

Holy Innocents Episcopal Church, formerly on Front Street in Lahaina Town and destroyed by the fire, announced the ...

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7rq3UoqWer6NjsLC5jqecsKtfobykrctmpZ6vo2R%2FcX2XaGduZ52Wwqp50Z6qopyVo8FuhZNmoqenp6h6qbXSZp2iqpWpv7avyqxm